MH4: Understanding the Insect Glaive
This guide has taken a very long time to write. Basically I keep rewriting it. It’s hard to talk about your favorite and most proficient weapon. At first it was around 15 pages long but I realized no one would read it and I was constantly slipping up and talking about the basics of how to use the weapon, which really the game should do (I try to focus more on strategy than controls). Here is my final attempt at a guide. I will do my best to keep it in layman’s terms.
- The Basics
Let’s get this out of the way. You have a bug that you shoot out toward an enemy (always goes the direction of the camera) and depending on the spot it smacks into the monster, it’ll suck out a different colored juice from it. In general, the head is RED, the legs/wings are WHITE, the body/stomach are ORANGE, and whatever is left is GREEN. There are some exceptions (like Fatalis tail give orange) but that’s the idea.
White juice lasts for 90 sec. and gives you the ability to jump higher and move a bit faster
Red juice lasts for 60 sec. and gives your moves more hits (different animations)
Orange juice lasts for 45 sec. and gives you knock back protection
Green juice just heals you. Useless!
Combine them for fun results:
White + Red (double up): 60 sec. max you enjoy attack up small + normal white/red bonus
White + Orange: 60 sec. max you enjoy def up small + earplugs + normal white/orange bonuses
White + Orange + Red (triple up): Full 60 sec. you get attack up large + def up large + earplugs + all the bonuses of all the colors. Whooo!
The point here is that a double up (two colors) will last as long as the last color you grabbed will, and you can grab that color again to activate the skill/keep it going. Triple up is stupidly powerful and you get a full 60 sec. so if you are running out of a double up, you can triple up right at the end and still get it for a full 60 sec.
- Raising your Bug
You have a choice to feed your bug different food to pump up its power, stamina, speed, and elemental stats
Power lets you do more damage with the bug which is only good if you are a total wuss and want to mark it and send the bug off to do your job.
Stamina is so you can command it many time in case you totally suck at aiming and end up telling it to charge a billion times and don’t want it to get tired (or you want to spam the bug attack and want it to listen to your commands more often).
Speed is for the pro hunters who know that the bug is only good to get you that juice and getting ifast is the key to snatching colors when there are small openings.
You can raise an ‘all-around’ type bug as well, but let’s be honest: who cares.
I say go speed all the way. By time you hit the final form, your bug will get the speed up large bonus and man what a difference it makes. Feed your bug to get it to 130+ speed and you’ll never go back. It’s like shooting a freaking bullet, faster than an arrow from a bow. With speed you can double and triple up fast, and keep to the hunt. I use a 140 speed bug, will bump it to 150 eventually, btw.
- Marking with the Bug
You can mark a monster with the bug, but I find it useless. If you are a wimp you could mark the tail and have the bug attack the tail to cut it off, but c’mon, this is one of the most aggressive weapons in the game and you should not be sending a bug out to do what a hunter can do better!
- Juice Strategy
Get that Red Juice, Don’t attack unless double or triple up. You should either have a white+red double up, or a triple up, before you start attacking. The damage you output is just too great to waste time attacking if not in this state (red only is okay if you are trying to just mount).
Here is a post of mine that goes more into the extracts (juice) and stately behind it:
http://gaijinhunter.tumblr.com/post/63151298221/insect-staff-notes-10-05
- The Holy Combo
This is a move that most people oversee but when you have red juice, if you press the X button (or X after an evade), you’ll do a cool jumping baton-twirl like attack. After that press X, the A, then repeat (x-x-a). The A attack will do a side swipe, not a lunge attack as it usually does, and this attack is incredibly strong. The combo is infinity and keeps you in place, too.
Here is a post I have on combos:
http://gaijinhunter.tumblr.com/post/72864304539/insect-staff-combos
- Strategy
As noted above, you should be focused on getting red+white (or triple up) or attacking. I would not even waste the time attacking if you do not have these (the glaive is slow and doesn’t hit that much when you don’t have red juice).
Once you do have a double up, it’s up to you if you want to go for the triple (you have a max. of 60 sec. to get the orange) or if you are confident, start knocking away at the monster and grab the orange just before your double up ends (when the colors start to blink you have 10 sec).
People often underestimate what a mount is good for. When you are solo, or even online, mounting a monster and downing it gives you an opportunity to get all 3 juices super easy. Take the opportunity to do so instead of attacking, unless you are already tripled up (if you have double, grab the orange then go crazy).
The glaive is meant to be used aggro so use the skill evade+2 and you’ll have a much easier time. Luckily in this game it’s pretty easy to get evade+2 and evade distance up in the same set, so go for that and it’ll ensure you can stick on the monster like flies on poop.
- Strategy: Distance
One of the reasons why I feel the insect glaive is so powerful (besides the fact that the damage output on the thing is insane) is that from standing distance you have a wide variety of different moves that hit at different ranges.
You can hit in front of you, hit front then do a backfip to hit behind, jump forward to hit high and in front, do a back jump to hit high and behind, forward + A to hit an enemy in front of you but with some distance, etc. The thing is very versatile so get used to the moves, particularly when you have red juice.
- Strategy: Juice from little monsters
As a glaive user, you can consider the small monsters walking colors. Small monsters only give you a specific color so learn what they are and you can easily snatch that from them instead of the large monster. This is a bad video I took (since I was holding the 3DS awkward and couldn’t even hit the target cam button let along use the buttons to move the camera) but this shows how you can snatch some colors from little monsters to make the hunt go easier (you can also see why a speed bug rocks):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3tWEf8_JAg
- Online Play vs. Solo Play
While a monster is down (from a mount) and anytime you have triple up is a good opportunity to whack on the monster, online you’ll contribute more by downing the monster multiple times and giving everyone a big opportunity to hit the monster so focus on that.
I don’t think the mount master ability is worth it - if you get used to riding monsters it should be simple to mount 4-5 times a hunt and win the struggle each time. It’s important to have high stamina so eat before your hunts. You can skill in HQ Earplugs and that way during the struggle you can stab during a scream, but a little practice and this should be simple without it.
One thing to note about mounting: if you are close to wining the struggle and the monster screams, take a few seconds afterwards and do nothing, then down it. That will ensure comrade players will be through the stupid cover-the-ears motion and will have time to get ready to attack it. Nothing worse than downing a monster right on a scream and everyone is too busy holding their ears to attack the thing!
- Misc. Notes
A not so well-known move is to hold R and X and after a few seconds you’ll hear a sound and the end of your glaive will glow. Release to send the bug off on a strong attack which deals a lot of damage. This is the best way to wake up a sleeping monster or blow up G Bombs, so use it!
The best glaive in the game by far is the Ama glaive (final boss of the online part). Make that glaive. It’s expensive but has high power a slot, slime element, and is good against any monster.
- Closing
I love the insect glaive. It’s my main and best weapon and stupidly strong and fun to use both solo and online. I highly recommend you learn how to use it and learn how to use it well. I cannot tell you how many times I have joined a room, saw a glaive user and decided to use another weapon so I don’t get in their way, then they fail to mount the monster a few times. I see them marking the monster and generally being stupid.
You play with a master glaive user and it’s like playing with a good hunting horn player - they become the maestro and lead the group.
Become good at the glaive and you’ll feel unstoppable. It’s aggro style is fun and exciting.
Happy Hunting!
P.S.: Bonus videos!
The final match of the MH4 Festa Championship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzhZ_IEBl4Q
You can see they use the strategy of going for double/triple before attacking (except you can try to mount if you have just red since it does give you those extra hits), and they use the holy combo as well
LV100 Rajang:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSvUENFbpXQ
Brilliant use of holding off on getting the triple until he raises his body to scream. Overall great understanding of both the weapon and the monster.
